?Tell me again why we are letting Erulas run the show?“, Captain Zala asked her navigator, both of them sitting in the crew lounge with a snack and drinks. There was not much to do during breaks or off-time on a ship the size of the DSF Volcano. The capital ships had sports and entertainment facilities, but her ship was a patrol cruiser with a crew of 20.


    Corporal Khon sipped on his drink, studying his superior officer. Her shoulders were slightly pulled up, her eyes moving about nervously. She was tense as if they had received orders for a combat encounter, and not orders to monitor from a distance and stay out of anything that may happen.


    ?Case of who was there first, I guess. We’re working with them for the moment.“


    Kohn pursed his lips. ?Like in the war.“, he said.


    ?I got a feeling there might be one.“, Zala said, looking past Khon into the distance. ?Superiors are all secretive, and rumors are that high officials in all three governments are involved.“


    Khon looked at his superior, still studying intently. Then he leaned forward: ?Speaking of rumors, Captain, the ones within the crew say we are not just here to babysit the Erulans. Fuel and armament are too intense for that. What is actually going on?“


    Zala hesitated, then leaned closer herself, her voice hushed: ?We are the only ones close enough to react, and keeping the Erulas battleship on the other side, away from us. Honestly, I don’t have all the details either. But from what I’ve heard, the pirates stole something really troublesome. Something that shouldn’t fall into the wrong hands.“


    She looked around with a quick glance, but they were still alone in the crew lounge. So she continued: ?So naturally Erulas and Dangorod both want it for themselves.“


    Khon’s eyes widened: ?Bad enough to start a war? Between humans?“


    Captain Zala shrugged, leaning back slightly. ?Don’t think a full-out war. Maybe a skirmish or something.“


    They continued in silence for a moment, each lost in their own thoughts. Then, Zala pulled out a small control tablet, tapped on the screen for a few seconds and then spoke into it: ?Captain speaking. Meeting in the crew lounge in five. All hands.“


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    She leaned back and gave Khon a disarming smile. ?I hate rumors.“, she said, ?Let’s clear them up.“


    Over the next few minutes, one by one the crew of the Volcano arrived in the crew lounge, the ship running on AI control for the moment. When everyone was there, captain Zala moved to one wall, where everyone could see and hear her, and spoke to the crew:


    ?This is something you better hear from me directly. The short of it is that we are all here, with that I mean us but also Erulas, for a thing the pirates stole from some aliens.“


    The crew listened intently as she continued: ?Problem is, nobody seems to know what exactly it is. Some tech, maybe a hyperdrive or something. Some higher-ups know more, but so far as I know, nobody would recognize it if they stood in front of it. So Erulas plan is to simply lean on the pirates until they cough it up.“


    A few slow nods among the crew signified they understood.


    ?Now the next part,“, Zala continued, ?is classified, doesn’t leave this ship, understood?“, she waited until she felt everyone in the crew had either nodded or voiced agreement. ?Good. Officially, we are observers. But we have additional orders. Command thinks the pirates will make a run for it. The Erulans brash operation only tells them one thing: That their loot is hot, much hotter than their usual stuff. Why would they hand it over? If it’s valuable enough for the marines and a battleship, it’ll fetch them enough on the black market that they can immediately retire in luxury.“


    She looked around and silenced the murmur among the crew with a raised hand.


    ?Hold it. Here’s the thing: They are wrong. Their loot is troublesome, not valuable. Our objective: Stop them from running.“


    Zala pressed on, her voice hardening: ?If they make a break for it, we pursue. And then, somewhere among the stars where nobody is watching, we’ll make the pirates and their loot disappear.“


    ?Disappear“, a crew member at the front asked as she was finished, ?or ?disappear‘?“


    Captain Zala looked over her crew. ?We are soldiers, not pirates. Our business is not stealing. We’re here to blow them up.“


    ?Why us?“, another crew member asked. ?We’re not an interceptor and there are better armed ships in the fleet.“


    ?That is true.“, Zala answered, ?But we’re hunting a pirate ship. How many of you know how exactly they get alien tech? Nobody? Alright, here’s how: A couple decades ago, some genius outlaw modified the dimensional shears. The device most of our ships have that can pierce a warp bubble and force a ship into normal space. Pirates use a modified version that doesn’t force the whole ship into normal space. There’s no boarding operation. They rip out the hyperdrive and get just that to fall out of hyperspace. The rest of the ship keeps going. We expect that once they notice we’re following, they’ll swing around and do that to us. Because most human ships only have one hyperdrive. If they rip it out, battleship or not, you’re dead in the void and they can get away. The Volcano is one of the few ships in the fleet with two hyperdrives.“